Cloudways
vs
Lightning AI
What's good about each
- Deploy to 65+ datacenter regions across multiple cloud providers
- Built-in cache, database, and CDN integration
- Offers free SSL, staging environments, and automated backups
- Flat-priced Node.js hosting with PostgreSQL on every plan
- Billed by the second, interruptible machines 50-80% off
- Studios move between its own cloud, AWS, GCP, Lambda and Nebius
- Owned H100, B200 and GB300 fleet in US datacenters
- Bring your own AWS or GCP account and spend cloud credits
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Cloudways | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $14.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (DO1GB) | -- Not listed | |
| Medium VM | $99.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (DO8GB) | -- Not listed | |
| Large VM | $149.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (DO16GB) | -- Not listed | |
| Block storage | -- Not listed | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | |
| Redis | Included depending on plan | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 1-12 TB / mo | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | $20.00 /TB $0.02 / GB (DO provider) | Not publicly listed |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Lightning AI offers 8 GPU models. We don't currently list GPU prices for Cloudways.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Cloudways | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | -- | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only |
| HIPAA | -- | AWS and GCP clouds only |
| GDPR | -- | Yes |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Cloudways | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | -- |
| Example customers | Stone Digital, BlueSkyPhoenix, DigiPix, PlatoData.io, James Schramko | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs |
| Website | www.cloudways.com | lightning.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Cloudways and Lightning AI against other cloud providers.
Our data for Cloudways was last updated on Oct. 2, 2026, and for Lightning AI on Oct. 28, 2026.